Leatherbacks Hatch Their Baby!
For centuries, the
leatherback turtles have called Playa Tamarindo one of their nesting spots. And
for more than a decade, so has the rock band known as The Leatherbacks. It’s
hard to live in Tamarindo and not know who this band is. They have established
themselves as a hard-working group, playing regularly at open mike night on
Tuesday nights at Pasatiempo Hotel. Their exuberance onstage is infectious. It
is obvious that these guys genuinely enjoy playing together and in paying their
dues over the years, they have gotten very tight together.
For the past few
years, one of the band’s two guitarists, Canadian born Brian Burback, has been writing
and recording songs for a solo album, a kind of side venture. Or so he believed.
As it turned out, Brian was simply developing his contribution for the
much-anticipated debut album by The Leatherbacks. I recently had a chance to
listen to this collaboration and it’s very, very good. The first thing that
struck me was that this album is truly a joint effort, with these guys’
experience and comfort with each other shining through. Brian likened it to
different threads in a tapestry, and he was quick to point out that while the
songs were written be him and Nick D’Amico, the other guitar player/vocalist in
the band, that the end result was the woven cloth, not a group of strings. Of
the nine original songs that comprise the album, five were written by Nick and
four by Brian. But that is where the sole ownership ends. Just listening to
percussionists Roy Fonseca and Jose Canales’ steady backbeats are true
testament that these guys are five fingers of the hand known as The
Leatherbacks. And holding up the steady bottom on each song is the able
bassist, Pedro Golobios.
The album kicks
off with “I Know”, a good intro song and segues into the rest of the album. The
whole CD of songs operates well as a unit, with various standout songs. I think
“Better Be Gone” has the catchiest, foot-tapping hooks. I asked Nick about his
guitar influences and he acknowledged that Carlos Santana was on that list,
along with Clapton, Hendrix, “and about a million others”. I asked both
guitarists about songwriting and they both told me that while there was no
single formula, usually the tune comes together first, with the words forming
their way around the music.
Deciding to
simply title their first album “The Leatherbacks” is, I think, yet another
indication of how these guys operate as a unit. The band plans on an early
January release, so by the time you are reading this, the CD should be coming
out soon. The entire album was recorded at Nick’s place, Casa Palmas, with the
band doing all the recording, engineering and mastering themselves. “We had to
get the sound straight from the amps to the soundboard,” Nick explained, “We
wanted it to sound like a good live recording”. And it does. It’s got a good
clean sound, without sounding like a sterile, digital recording.
The band is
planning to play live with the Costa Rica National Philharmonic in June. It’s a
big opportunity for the band and a big challenge as well: one I think the boys
are up for. Their CD is available at Jaime Peligro book store in Playa
Tamarindo, where the customer can sample the music.All comments concerning this article are gladly welcome.
